Earl Grey Tea Soap – How To-sday

I go through phases with my hot beverage of choice. I’ve been on a coffee (decaf only!) kick for quite awhile now, but I’ve been easing my way back into tea. I just love everything about tea — the texture, the rich smells of each variety, and how beautiful a heap of loose leaf tea looks!

Earl Grey has been a favorite of mine for ages, and I have the most wonderful loose leaf blend with lavender. Clearly, I can’t draw the line at drinking it, so I’ve made a beautiful, sudsy mess with it – soap! You can see the lavender flecks on the background soap in the photo below.

P.S. I had my parents in town this weekend from San Diego, and my mom was a fabulously cooperative, patient hand model! ;D

Earl Grey Soap Tutorial

Supplies

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1. Cut a couple large chunks from the package of soap, and chop them into smallish cubes.

2. Dump all the cubes of soap into a microwave-safe container. One with a pouring spout is ideal, but you could do this in a bowl or mug if that’s all you have. Microwave for 30 seconds, and then stir it thoroughly with the spoon. If you still have any unmelted chunks, continue to melt in ten-second intervals, stirring after each.

Careful – this can get very hot!

3. Carefully pour the melted soap into your mold, filling the mold 1/2 to 2/3, depending on your preference. The more you fill it in this step, the bigger the white section of your soap will be.

4. Throw the remaining melted soap back in the microwave for 10-20 seconds to get it piping hot and liquidy again. Drop a couple black tea (English breakfast, Irish breakfast, Early grey, etc.) into the mixture, and let them steep for about 30 seconds.

Carefully use the back of the spoon to squeeze the tea bags against the side of the container, extracting nice, dark tea-stained soap. Mix it up thoroughly to spread the color around evenly.

5. Once the white soap from Step 3 has firmed up a bit on top, it’s time to pour the tea layer. First mist the white soap with a bit of the alcohol to help the layers stick together. Pour it over the back of a spoon, like in the picture above. This will allow it to pour in gently and not mix too much with the white layer.

Pour it close to the top, but leave enough room for the tea. You can take a look at the picture below to give you a better idea what I mean.

6. Immediately sprinkle a really generous helping of your loose leaf Earl Grey tea all over the top of the melted soap. Completely cover it, using way more tea than you need. You can just tap off the excess when it’s all firmed up.

7. Allow the soap to harden for several hours, minimum, before popping it out of the mold. Then, you can just tap off the excess tea!